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Military Tribunals: A Sorry History
Author(s) -
Fisher Louis
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
presidential studies quarterly
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.337
H-Index - 5
eISSN - 1741-5705
pISSN - 0360-4918
DOI - 10.1111/1741-5705.00003
Subject(s) - tribunal , law , political science , supreme court , military justice , economic justice , administration (probate law) , george (robot) , german , history , archaeology , art history
After 9/11, President George W. Bush authorized the creation of military tribunals to try those who assisted in the terrorist attacks on New York City and Washington, DC. His military order closely tracked the model established by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who appointed a military tribunal in 1942 to try eight German saboteurs. In Ex parte Quirin (1942), the Supreme Court unanimously upheld Roosevelt's tribunal. The Bush administration relies heavily on this judicial precedent, but military tribunals in U.S. history have generally been hostile to civil liberties, procedural due process, and elementary standards of justice.